A Birth day

Angus got up, and he went downstairs and put on a pot of coffee. While that was brewing, he got out the yeast dough. He made a batch of orange cheesecake breakfast rolls, similar to cinnamon rolls but with an orange cheesecake filling instead of cinnamon butter, and with an orange glaze on top. He put those in the oven to bake. Then he scrambled a batch of eggs, caramelized some onions, diced up some pre-cooked ham, and shredded some sharp cheddar. Then, he used the eggs and cheese and onions and ham, and he made a loaf of bread that was stuffed in the center with the eggs, cheese, ham, and onions. He did an egg wash across the top, sprinkled some flaky sea salt and a bit of fresh cracked pepper on the top, and then he put the loaf in the oven to bake. While that was baking, he made a tangy honey mustard sauce for the loaf of stuffed breakfast bread, and then, remembering that Ginger had asked him to make waffles, he sighed, frustrated that he'd made the orange rolls and  stuffed breakfast bread. So he fashioned up some waffle batter and made some chocolate chip waffles with a warm chocolate syrup for anyone who was brave enough to want chocolate chip waffles for breakfast.

When the rolls were finished in the oven, he drizzled them with the sweet orange glaze, put them on a platter and set them on the sideboard. Then, he took the stuffed bread from the oven, sliced it into generous thick slices and put them on a large platter and set them on the sideboard with a gravy boat that he had pressed into service to hold the warm honey mustard sauce. He added his platter of the chocolate chip waffles and a gravy boat of warm chocolate sauce and decided breakfast was ready. 

His shoulder now hurting from all the exercise it had taken to do breakfast, he poured himself some coffee and fixed his plate. He took a slice of the breakfast bread, one waffle with syrup, and one of the orange rolls.. 

"Breakfast is ready," he told Ruby. "Help yourself."

Ruby watched as Angus began breakfast she noticed how he moved and noted he had to be in a bit of pain with all the movement he had been doing. When he mentioned it was ready she smiled to him " thank you and here" she handed him a small dose of pain potion " I saw how your shoulder was hurting you" she said and placed the small cup in his hand " please take it, its only a small dose so will help take the edge off if anything" she said smiling to him.

Leaving Angus to take the potion she went and made a plate for herself. " looks and smells good, Aria went out for a run earlier she should be.." as she finished Aria walked in with Finn at her feet .

"smells wonderful in here" she said walking over and looking at the food " looks good Angus , thank you" she added as she made a plate and pored a coffee for herself.

"It is," Angus told her. "Yeast dough is nigh onto impossible to do with one hand. Thanks." He took the potion and tucked into his plate. The boys came down from upstairs and looked at the sideboard.

"Chocolate chip waffles! Awesome!" Sam said, fixing his plate and putting three waffles on his plate, a pat of butter and some syrup. He added a slice of breakfast bread and an orange roll, and Victor followed right behind him, fixing a very similar plate. As they sat down, Marcus came down and the girls came up.

"Are you feeding a football team?" Marcus asked.

"Almost," Angus said. 

"The waffles are great," Victor said. "Thanks."

"You're welcome," Angus said. The girls went to the sideboard to fix their plates. As the girls were settling in, there was a knock on the door, and Robert came in.

"Good morning. Sorry to bother you so early, but I thought you'd perhaps be interested. Two things. First, your custody of Diamond is final. I filed it yesterday, so it was technically formalized last night, but I got busy and didn't get a chance to get back to you. So, my apologizies on that."

"No problem. Thank you."

"Second thing," Robert said. "The records department did some digging, and we found that, for some odd reason, Diamond already has a Gringotts account all her own. It looks like Suzanne opened it just a couple days after her birth, and since you are now her father and she's just a baby, you're the only one who can have any access to it. We got the key to it yesterday when we transferred Suzanne to Jeffrey's lockdown unit. I thought you might like to check that out."

"Well, I wouldn't question it if Suzanne were a decent mother. It rather makes sense that she might open a vault for her child. However, this is Suzanne we're talking about, so I am very curious indeed about what she might have squirreled away there. I'll check it out. Thank you," Angus said. "Breakfast is ready. You should fix yourself a plate."

"I might. it looks fabulous, and Kate's onto her health craze again. She made me one of those nasty smoothies that taste like lawnmower clippings. I've already tossed it out, so your breakfast looks decidedly better than what she's trying to poison me with."

"Help yourself. There's plenty."

"I think I will. Thanks," Robert said, going to fix a plate.

Ruby sat and listened to the boys and chuckled but when the knock came she watched as Robert enter and speak to Angus " that's great , now she has a good future" she said smiling as she ate her breakfast as Robert continued talking to Angus as Aria heard the babies start crying and shouting for them. Standing Aria walked up to the nursery picking up both girls and walking down to the living room with one on each hip and placed them into their high chairs.

Ruby heard the babies but saw Aria was already on her way and that Aria motioned to her to stay put. Seeing her return with the babies she got up and made a plate for the two babies of waffles. Dimond tucked in as did Caprice who dipped her pieces in the sticky maple syrup.

"You might not want to count your chickens before they're hatched, Ru," Angus told her. "Just because Suzanne opened an account, it doesn't mean she put one single thing in it. She's probably not done anything for any altruistic reason in her entire life. We should check it out first."

"Well, whatever she put in there, she certainly didn't do it for Diamond's wellbeing," Robert said. "I'll wager the only time she really thought about Diamond was when she was in labor and bloody well couldn't help thinking about her."

"Agreed," Angus replied.

"How's the shoulder, Angus?"

"Good enough that I could make breakfast," Angus said.

"Good, but just be sure you're not overdoing it. Right now, if you're feeling more than just a wee bit of pain, you're overdoing."

"He's overdoing," Marcus said.

"Tattletail," Angus teased.

"He'll learn," Robert said. "The only person he's hurting is himself. How's your head, Marcus."

"Getting better, I think," Marcus said. "When I woke up, I had most of my memories back about my parents and my childhood, some memories of Evelyn and my children. So its definitely improving."

"Good. That's a good deal quicker than I expected. By the sounds of it, you should be back to normal again any time now, and I didn't figure you'd manage that for several daysWhatever you're doing, keep it up because its working."

"Maybe its Minos's ointment," Angus said.

"Minos's what?" Robert asked. Marcus accio'd the jar and handed it to Robert. Robert checked it out.

"Some magical botanicals," Robert analyzed. "Nothing harmful. If it's helping, just keep using it," Robert said.

"I'm sure I will," Marcus replied.

Ruby looked at Angus and paused " yeah, your right, she never did that for any of us, why Dimond, and what really is in that vault?" she asked sitting back down as she heard Robert talk to angus about his shoulder and chuckled as Marcus said he was suborn about it. " but that's a good thing , sometimes" she said chuckling again.

Aria listened to Robert talk to Marcus she smiled hearing about his memories of his family returning thanks to Minos ointment but knew it could possibly still take time for him to remember what they had together, but she was willing to wait as she thought he was worth waiting on.

Ruby finished her food and stood up to continue making the strawberry shortcake in the kitchen mixing up the base she then blended the strawberry's turning the white mixture into a light pink which she pored into the cake tin with the biscuit base then she placed that into the fridge again to set as she began cutting whole strawberry's into slices but leaving two for decoration.

"I'll check it out," Angus said.

"I'm finished with breakfast," Marcus said, "and since I remember part of my skills, at least, I could go with you if you want."

"I'm only going to make a quick trip, make sure there isn't some sort of demon in a jar in there, and come straight back."

"If you do find a demon in a jar in that vault, do us all a favor and don't take the lid off," Robert told Angus as he speared another waffle and put it on his plate. "Just leave him in there."

"Noted," Angus replied. "I think we'll go and come right back.  Anybody need anything from Diagon Alley while we're out? If not, I think Marcus and I will get going so we can get right back."

Ruby looked up from making the shortcake and smiled as Angus mentioned checking out the vault at Gringotts bank. " be carful don't know what my mother is thinking" she said to him as she placed the bowl of strawberry's into the fridge ready to place on top when it was dinner time . Pausing she looked in the fridge and then looked at Angus " we need onions to make onion gravy to go with the roast" she said closing the fridge door " I noticed we're out" she added.

Aria thought and shook her head " oh maybe a new toy to replace the one that broke, one that won't break easily." she said glancing at Caprice and Dimond in the play pen playing together happily.

"Okay," Angus said. He and Marcus apparated to London and went to Gringotts. They were soon taken to the vault, and Angus opened it. The two of them went in together.  Angus was not surprised that it wasn't flush with cash. In fact, it pretty bare bones. Angus saw, on the floor, a couple of books. He picked up one of the books and opened it.

"It's a diary," he told Marcus. He started to read the last few pages. "Hm...Looks like Reginald and my father really were not good buddies, despite the fact that Reginald worked for Benjamin. Oh, dear. It gets pretty dark. Looks like Reginald was quite miffed with my father about money. My father came into a windfall of some sort by some caper they'd pulled, and he evidently made a big sum for it. That pissed off Reginald. Let me see..." He kept reading. "It was actually Reginald who set up my parents to be killed by James as a revenge sort of thing. James, though, wanted more for his pack, so he bit them instead."

"Well, that apparently didn't go as planned," Marcus said.

"No. It didn't. Reginald stole the key to wherever that big windfall of Benjamin's got to, and Suzanne tucked it here in the book because she couldn't figure out the clues that Reginald left about where he put the money.  And here's the answer to the question we've been asking. Apparently Tom found out about this big amount of cash, and he wanted it. Suzanne said she wasn't giving to him. She told him she'd give him the money if he married her. So, he married her, but she has so far, let him on a bit of a wild goose chase, looking for the money. And, she even goes so far as to say that Diamond was a complete accident. Neither of them had wanted her in the first place, but she believed she could use Diamond to get a big piece of Tom's money."

"So now we know. They stay together because they're both hoping to swindle the other," Marcus laughed. "They freaking deserve each other. If we could find the clues, maybe we could find the money ourselves."

"The clues are here. We just have to figure them out," Angus said as Marcus picked up the other book.

"This book is a ledger. Looks like money and land and holdings for someone," Marcus said.

"So, we need to take the books and the key and go for now," Angus said.

"Agreed," Marcus said. "Next stop, onions?"

"Baby toy," Angus said. "Its only a couple doors away, And then onions on the way home. There's that farmers market in the village. They'll have fresher ones."

"Okay," Marcus said. They stopped and bought a set of replacement toy keys, went to the farmers market in the village and bought a large bag of sweet onions and headed home.

"We're back," Angus said, as he and Marcus came in the door. Marcus put the large bag of onions on the table and he handed the new toy keys to Ruby. "No money in the vault. Just a couple of books and a key." He told Ruby and Aria what they had learned from the diary.

Ruby heard both men return and smiled " welcome home" she said and listened to Angus " no surprise there , and books, mom wasn't much of a reader" she said and looked at the books he held " those use to be on the book case in the house, the one I told you we weren't to touch but I had to dust" she said as Aria walked over to Marcus and took the bag of toys and onions from him Taking the onions to the kitchen she opened and cleaned the toys before walking over to the play pen and giving each child one new set of teething keys.

Aria looked at Marcus and Angus and then the books " a ledger?" she asked standing back up and walking over to it. Taking it from Angus she opened it and looked t the entries " wow , these are long gone" she said pointing to one address" this place was bulldozed years ago, and this guy, he passed two years after it went down" she said looking at the pages as she placed it on a table in front of her.